


sunset at midnight

by liar_iago



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-03-31 23:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3998008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liar_iago/pseuds/liar_iago
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenma isn't good with words. Luckily, Shouyou is willing to give Kenma the time he needs to get them out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sunset at midnight

**Author's Note:**

> hmmmm, not much to say about this one! just a little thing that happened. it was originally written for kenhina day, but i can never finish a fic in a day haw haw !! better late than never????? 
> 
> enjoy!

Sleepless nights aren’t a foreign concept to Kenma. He’s the type to push irrelevant information into the back of his mind and bring it back out to process at the end of the day. This was a fine tactic back in his grade school and middle school days, but since he’s entered high school, his life has been getting more and more cluttered, and there are nights when he closes his eyes only to blink.

On this night in particular, at the end of the first day of a joint summer training camp with the Karasuno volleyball team, he gets the small relief of getting to sit outside on the grassy hill near the gym while he ruminates over some of his current concerns, the foremost of which is the fact that winter is far too cold, and summer is far too hot.

Right now, though, on this Tokyo summer night, the air is cool enough to be refreshing, but not cold enough that he needs his jacket. The occasional breeze that ruffles the grass around him is warm, but not stuffy.

Kenma sighs. “It would nice if every day could be like this.”

“Wouldn’t it?”

Kenma jolts so hard he might have pulled a muscle in his neck. He snaps his head up, ready to scold Kuro for scaring him like that, because he should _know_ \--

A mane of bright orange enters his field of vision, and his thought process screeches to a halt.

“Sorry, sorry!” says Shouyou, holding a volleyball in one hand and raising the other in apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kenma takes a second to mentally drop his lecture into a box and kick the lid down over it. “It’s okay.”

“What are you doing out here?” says Shouyou, sitting down next to Kenma and placing the volleyball down on the ground in front of him. He crosses his legs, shifting to move closer to Kenma, but not so much that Kenma feels crowded.

That’s one of the things Kenma likes most about Shouyou--he notices things about people and can tell when they’re important even if they’re never mentioned aloud.

Kenma glances up to see Shouyou looking at him expectantly with a small, patient smile on his face, and he realizes Shouyou asked him a question.

“Uh--” he fumbles, tucking his thoughts away to one side and bringing the conversation to the forefront. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Ohh,” says Shouyou. “Thinking about stuff? You always seem like you are.”

Kenma’s eyes widen. “Do I…?”

“Well, I mean--you’re always frowning and looking down, like you’re trying to figure something out,” says Shouyou. “It’s not really a bad thing.”

“Then you’ve been watching me?” says Kenma, and he can feel his face heating up just from asking the question, never mind Shouyou’s reply.

“A little, I guess. Should I stop?I know it’s a weird habit, so--”

“It’s fine,” says Kenma, averting his gaze. He picks a blade of grass from the ground and folds it in half once. “What are you doing out here?”

“Oh--well, I was going to get some hitting practice in. But Kageyama wouldn’t wake up, that jerk, but I was already up, you know? So I figured I’d just come on out anyway and work it out from there.”

“Hitting practice at this time of night?” says Kenma. “By yourself?”

“Well, I found you!”

“I’m not really…” Kenma gives Shouyou an apologetic look, but Shouyou is smiling.

“Kidding! You’re probably tired from practicing all day.” Shouyou tilts his head playfully, and Kenma notices the bright full moon glowing behind him. The light, stained orange as it filters through between the strands of his hair, reminds Kenma of a sunset.

When Kenma first met Shouyou, there was something about his brilliantness that frightened him. He was endless, and extraordinary in a way that couldn’t (still can’t) be described, and it intimidated Kenma. After all, the sun is easy to admire from afar, but quick to burn after prolonged exposure.

Over the past year, however, Kenma has come to discover that there is a gentleness about Shouyou that can’t be matched by the sun, and it comes out during times like these, when it’s just the two of them and all is quiet.

“So, what kinds of things are you thinking about?” says Shouyou, pulling his legs in towards his chest and resting his cheek on his knees.

“Mm,” Kenma hums, hesitant to share partially because he’s always more coherent in his mind than he is out loud, and partially because some of the things he’s thinking about he’s not quite ready to tell Shouyou just yet. “Just random stuff.”

“I see,” says Shouyou with a tiny smile. “Well, I’ve been thinkin’ about stuff too.”

Kenma can’t help but smile back. “Like what?”

“Like how close our teams have grown these past couple of years,” says Shouyou. “I mean, we’re rivals and all, but we’re also really good friends! I’m grateful for that, especially since you’re one of my best friends in the world. I really like you.”

Kenma ducks his head, letting his hair fall over his face to hide the blush he’s certain is spreading across his cheeks. “R-really?”

“Of course! You know I love hanging out and texting and stuff!”

Kenma fidgets, unfolding and folding his little blade of grass as he tries to formulate his reply. No one has ever told him they liked him before--at least, not like Shouyou just did.  

“I feel the same way,” he finally manages to get out, still not meeting Shouyou’s eyes. “You make volleyball fun.”

Shouyou makes a quiet sound that Kenma can’t quite place, and when Kenma looks up he realizes Shouyou is chuckling softly.

“What is it? Did I say something weird?” says Kenma, hoping he hasn’t embarrassed himself in front of Shouyou, of all people.

“No, I was just remembering something I said last year, the first time our teams had a practice match together,” says Shouyou. “About how one day I would make you admit that you liked volleyball.”

Kenma raised his eyebrows. “You remembered something like that?”

Shouyou grins. “I never forget a promise! Although, now that I think about it, it might have been closer to something like...hmm…”

“‘Next time,’” says Kenma, and Shouyou’s voice from that day, steady and solid, echoes in the back of his memory. “‘We’ll make you fight tooth and nail. And when we win...’”

Shouyou grins, and he leans towards Kenma in excitement. His face, round and bright and sun-kissed with freckles, fills Kenma’s vision, and it’s like staring right at a giant sunflower.

“When we win, you’ll say ‘it was frustrating,’ or ‘it was fun,’ or anything except ‘I don’t really care,’” Shouyou finishes. “You remembered too!”

Kenma only nods. _It’s hard to forget the things you say._

“So I guess technically it’s still on, huh?” says Shouyou. “Since we didn’t beat you at nationals last year.”

“We’ll be winning this year, as well,” says Kenma, only half-teasing.

“Not if we have anything to say about it!” says Shouyou. “I just need to get some more practice in, is all.”

Kenma looks at Shouyou, at the ever-present glint of determination in his eyes, deep to the point of infiniteness, and wonders if he has ever seen someone so beautiful.

Kenma reaches over and picks up the volleyball sitting at Shouyou’s feet. “I’ll toss for you,” he says, standing up.

Shouyou’s jaw drops, and he jumps to his feet. “Really?”

“Twenty tosses.”

“That’s five more than you did for me yesterday!” Shouyou leaps forward and throws his arms around Kenma’s waist, making him drop the volleyball. “You’re the best!”

It catches Kenma off guard; usually, people ask permission before making contact. It’s not entirely unpleasant, though, the way Shouyou hugs him tight enough that it feels like he might lift him off the ground. And on nights like tonight, when he’s been lost in his thoughts for so long he feels like he’s dreaming, the movement of Shouyou’s chest against his and the sound of their breaths matching up makes Kenma feel...real.

“Shouyou,” Kenma says quietly after a brief moment of silence. “I…”

Shouyou pulls away to look up at Kenma. He smiles, a soft upturn of his lips that puts Kenma at ease, and waits.

Kenma opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. It’s disappointing, but he isn’t surprised. He’s known for a long time now that he doesn’t have what it takes to tell Shouyou how much his life has changed since the day they first met. He doesn’t know how to express out loud how happy he is that someone like Shouyou ever noticed him, let alone chose him as a friend. He can’t bring himself to confess that he wants to be something more.

Kenma stands there for what feels like an eternity, trying to find something, _anything_ to say to Shouyou, and he doesn’t know why it has to be tonight of all nights, but he knows that he won’t be able to forgive himself if the two of them part ways after this with nothing having changed between them.

“Shouyou,” says Kenma slowly, mind racing, and when Shouyou’s smile widens, he realizes he probably looks ridiculous right now, eyes wide and mouth agape like a fish out of water.

Instead of laughing at him, however, Shouyou simply takes Kenma’s hand gently in both of his.

“It’s okay,” says Shouyou, running his thumb comfortingly over the back of Kenma’s hand. “You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not ready to say.”

Kenma looks down and watches Shouyou trace circles in his skin. “I don’t know when my next chance will be.”

“Hm,” says Shouyou. “After this training camp ends, the next time we meet will be at nationals, right?”

Kenma nods. Shouyou begins pressing his knuckles one by one.

“So then, after we win and you’ve told me ‘I had fun!’ or some variation of that,” says Shouyou, “you can say what you need to, right?”

“At nationals…?” That gives Kenma three months. He wonders if it will be enough for someone like him, who never seems to be able to get his words out properly no matter how long he spends turning them over in his head.

“In the meantime, you owe me twenty-five tosses!” Shouyou turns Kenma’s hand over, palm up, before leaning down to pick the volleyball up and placing it in Kenma’s hand.

Kenma blinks. “Wasn’t it supposed to be twenty?”

Shouyou grins and winks at him. “Don’t worry about it! It’s really not that much of a difference, right?”

The thought of it alone exhausts Kenma, but still, twenty turns into twenty-five because something about Shouyou’s energy is contagious. In the end, Kenma can barely even keep his eyes open, but he can’t say that he particularly minds when Shouyou takes his hand to lead him away from the grassy hill and back to where the others are sleeping.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> there might be some mistakes/typos. lemme know! hope you enjoyed the story! thanks for reading


End file.
